Adrian Sullivan Wins Grand Prix Milwaukee With Jeskai Control

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Adrian Sullivan and his Jeskai Control deck waded through a sea of Golgari Midrange to win Grand Prix Milwaukee this weekend.

Sullivan was one of two Jeskai Control lists to make the Top 8, along with four Golgari decks, and one copy each of White Weenie and Izzet Drakes. He defeated two Golgari players and the other Jeskai player to win the tournament—a gauntlet that was fairly representative of the Standard metagame as a whole.

Golgari Midrange continued to be the most popular deck in Standard, making up 30% of the Top 100 decks in Milwaukee. Jeskai Control, Izzet Drakes, and White-based aggro decks (mono-White + Boros) rounded out the decks that made up more than 10% of the field, but none of them were even close to the popularity of Golgari.

Highlights From Milwaukee

While Green and Black were by far the most popular colors in Milwaukee, Blue and Red combined to make two of the best highlights from the Grand Prix.

First, in Round 13, Adrian Sullivan cast a Spell Swindle on an uncounterable Carnage Tyrant just to generate extra Treasure, which he then used to cast an Explosion for 16 to win the match.

The second highlight—well, lowlight, really—came in the quarterfinals, which featured Owen Turtenwald’s Izzet Drakes deck against Isaak Krut’s Jeskai Control. Turtenwald was down a game and falling behind in Game 2 when he cast a Banefire for four to kill Krut’s Crackling Drake…forgetting that Banefire only becomes uncounterable when you cast it for X = 5. Kruut re-read the card, countered it, and Turtenwald could only shake his head. While painful to watch, it’s a good reminder that even the best players in the world are still human and can make boneheaded plays, too.

Ultimate Masters Previews This Week

Ultimate Masters previews begin today and continue tomorrow, culminating in the full spoiler being revealed on Wednesday. Make sure to check out Reddit and Twitter for the latest previews!